Managing Your Time or Managing Your Life? Many of us would like to be able to squeeze more hours out of a day. We study time management strategies and creative scheduling techniques. We try to figure out how to do two things at once.
But,
No matter what you do there will only ever be 24 little old hours in a day, no more, no less. The notion of managing time is therefore a non-starter. The best we can aspire to is to is managing ourselves.
Time is a limited commodity for each of us. We have only 24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week, 8760 hours in a year. If you were to assume that you were going to live to be 100 there would be 876,000 hours from your moment of birth to your death! That is well under a million hours in a lifetime. (You will need to live to be 114 to clock up your million hours on this planet).
The Focus of Our Attention
With every minute, we are voting with our time. By saying yes to one activity, we are saying no to another.. By being present in this room, you have voted to devote time to personal and professional growth, learning, community and enjoyment. There are many ways you could spend this morning. But here you are. What values are you voting for by being in this room?
When you make choices about how to spend your time it’s important to recognise that an infinite number of possibilities are not chosen. You need to constantly aware of where the focus of your attention is, and ask yourself what the consequences of are of doing x AND what the consequences of not doing y and z. When y and z are depth activities you neglect them at your peril!
Depth Activities
To define your depth activities ask yourself
What is it you have always wanted to do/be that up until now you have put off?
What difference do you want to make?
What fulfils you?
How often do you put off doing something that we can refer to as a depth activity, in favour of something that ‘has’ to be done?
What are the consequences of not doing the depth activity?
Tiime Diary
A useful exercise is to track all of your time for one week to see how you are spending your time.
Cause is Greater than Effect
Cause = Taking Responsibility, being aware, asking the question
What is it that you are not doing while you are choosing to lie in, watch TV, have a coffee, and what are the consequences of CHOOSING not to do y and z, and what does it cost you
Effect = Making Excuses, blaming others (see Saying No)
Effect Statements – Related to Time
Time just passes me by
There’s not enough time
Time escapes me
I was killing time
I don’t have the right Work- Life balance
It’s on the back burner
It’s on hold
Managing Ourselves Effectively; Overcoming Resistance and Overwhelm
It is unlikely that you can increase the speed at which you do things sufficiently to make a real difference
Therefore you have to make some tough decisions because
Something’s Gotta Give
You cannot fit more in!
Learn to say NO; learn to recognise when someone is making a request of you and remember that you have a choice
Learn to delegate: who else could do it?
Work with your strengths and be kind to yourself about your weaknesses
Learn to delegate: who else could do it?
Have a plan and be flexible; don’t be a slave to your filofax, palm pilot etc they are just tools. We all have the right to change our minds (men too!). Re-evaluate.
Don’t spend too long planning!
Delete non-motivating words from your language
And remember great tasks can be achieved in small steps
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away
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Contributor's Note
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